Convergent Partners with Medical Center Hospital of Odessa, Texas in New Pre-Arrival Patient Access Case Study

Convergent Revenue Cycle Management, Inc. has announced a new healthcare revenue cycle case study with Medical Center Hospital of Odessa, Texas.

In a release, the Company said that the study, conducted by Healthcare Business Insights' (HBI) Revenue Cycle Academy, focuses on how Medical Center Hospital improved their patient pre- registration process to include insurance information verification, confirmation of expected patient out-of-pocket responsibility and collection, and documentation of patient promise to pay - all through Convergent's patient-focused contact center technology operations, PatientQuest. Convergent's pre-arrival patient contact center resulted in the percentage of scheduled patients who are pre- registered to rise from 40 percent to an average of 80-90 percent, reduced wait times at registrations to drop from 25 minutes to an average of 11 minutes, and improvement in registration accuracy from 87 percent to 97 percent, all factors that create a positive patient experience for Medical Center. The full study is available to providers in Convergent's healthcare revenue cycle library at convergentusa.com/library and to HBI members at healthcarebusinessinsights.com.

Convergent said that the study also outlines the challenges Medical Center Hospital faced before implementation of the pre- arrival patient contact center and the strategies around adoption. Medical Center struggled to recruit and retain frontline revenue cycle staff members and expand patient access operations and resources. In 2007, they established an online pre-registration form and a dedicated pre-registration hotline, but both of those methods relied on patients contacting the hospital. "We could probably have continued to manage that internally, but we realized that we can't just sit back and wait for our patients to call us," notes J.R. Edmiston, Director of Patient Financial Services at MCH. "It's our responsibility to improve our process and quality for our customers."

The revenue cycle study also shows Medical Center's reasoning to select Convergent for patient access solutions. Medical Center chose to partner with Convergent, impressed with the company's investment in its front-end revenue cycle services. Convergent was willing to work on Medical Center's systems, so there were no software integration needs to slow implementation. Hospital staff traveled to Convergent's patient access operations base to train Convergent staff on their systems and processes. "It was just like if we were going to hire a bunch of new employees onsite, just at a different location," Edmiston observes.

Derek Pickell, CEO of Convergent's healthcare division said, "Our goal is to not only help expedite the patient registration process, but further improve our clients' financial performance by decreasing insurance denials associated with the patient access process, accelerating patient throughput during the pre-arrival process, and increasing cash collections. All of this will be achieved while ensuring improved patient and physician satisfaction with the pre- arrival process. We are the leading vendor partner in the industry providing our PatientQuest solution in support of the pre-arrival and patient satisfaction process for healthcare providers."

Convergent Revenue Cycle Management is a niche revenue cycle management company in healthcare, providing solutions across the revenue cycle spectrum including patient access solutions, early out self-pay collections, attorney-powered third party reimbursement and bad debt recovery (through Convergent Healthcare Recoveries, Inc.).

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